Friday, December 14, 2012

Getting Ready For The First Freeze -BRR

In Texas there is a saying that says "If you wait long enough, the weather will change." This is especially true in the Winter. The news reporters were warning of a big freeze with a blustery cold front several days in advance. So, our farmers had fair warning to prep for the freeze. Since we have had such a big long growing season and have 21 garden beds to work in, we decided to let nature do it's work and let things freeze. There was a lot of harvesting going on in preparation of the deep freeze.

Our herbs were cut back and hung on a dowel to dry. Not only does it make a great fragrance in our classroom, it also will be used to make herb packets to give to our teachers and friends of the farm.

Our farm friends picked a ton of peppers and all the other tender veggies that don't tolerate frost.

The kids watered real well so that the plants that could handle a freeze would be sturdy enough to fight off the frost.We also backed the water out of our rain harvesting system and plugged in the pump so that we wouldn't have any damage from the freeze.

Our pumpkin drop off bins were filled to the brim, so we had to prepare them for our compost.

We needed to get our big pumpkins into smaller pieces that would be easier to compost. Smashing the pumpkins was too much fun!

After adding the smashed pumpkins, we poured in dead leaves for our nitrogen layer.

Farming keeps you in tune with the environment. It teaches you to plan, take care of crops and the cycle of seed to table to frost. The freeze on our farm was another great learning experience for our young farmers. We look forward to caring for our cool weather plants and tending to the beds to prep for our Spring planting which will be right around the corner. As always, there is never a dull moment at Moss Haven Farm.

We work hard but always have time for fun! My new puppy, Lady, joined Farm Team this week. The kids wore her out!